So, what's the BBI consensus on this player?
He's averaging 3 yards a carry on 40 carries. Last year he averaged 3.3 and that was as the feature back for 7 games.
RB is the one position you expect a contribution early in the career of a draft pick.
We used a mid level pick on him and I expected more, to be honest. He's still showing the lack of vision that he displayed last season. Just runs right into his blockers. I don't see any improvement, at all. I'm afraid what we see at this point is what he is. Maybe (hopefully) I'm wrong and he can be taught to be something he currently isn't - a power north - south back with the ability to recognize space when it's not exactly where the run is designed to go.
What's the thoughts of BBI?
Darkwa is under contract for at least another year. They obviously like him and he is a good special teams player. He played every special teams snap and mph except had more snaps then Williams.
He had an incredible college career that was never going to translate too well. The Giants overdrafted a guy from BC. Shocking. Having said that, he's done alright.
He's a role player and is doing OK. Needs to improve his blocking and receiving if he wants a larger role.
Happy to keep him as 3rd or 4th back for years to come.
Yet, even with the defense keying on the run, Williams YPC isn't that much poorer than the other backs.
I do think he's got some value on the roster, but not sure he's ever going to amount to much more than we've seen, better run blocking or not.
When he squares up his shoulders, he runs over fools, but more often then not he tries to do some fancy move he is not capable of at the NFL level and usually gets blasted.
He had an incredible college career that was never going to translate too well. The Giants overdrafted a guy from BC. Shocking. Having said that, he's done alright.
Really, a 4th round pick for a guy who lead the nation in rushing as a senior and led his team in rushing as a rookie, 7 TDS, a long run of 50 and a few others of 25 or more is a reach? I'll bet Reese wishes had a lot more "reaches" like this in the 4th round. You guys with your idiotic favoritism rants are getting more ridiculous by the day.
I'm remembering the timeline right, they had long hired McAdoo when they drafted him too.
They turned out pretty well.
Even if he isn't better than Jennings, keeping him fresh and reducing the liklihood of a nagging injury has a lot of value to this team. If Jennings goes down, that puts a limit on the offense.
Were they really holes, or were they cracks?
I agree, he has been used mainly as the short yardage back, which does not bode well for ypc......
This OL, can open up a hole here and there, especially when the defense thinks we are going to pass.....but it CANNOT run, when it needs to run....and too many drives are stopped, because we must have balance....
Been a long time since we had a good every down back, that could stay on the field......
Vereen has been a good addition to this offense.....Amazing how Belichick replaces him, with a guy that may even be better, at 1/4 the price....
If we MUST have balance then why the fuck is Eli throwing the ball 54 times?
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nd too many drives are stopped, because we must have balance....
If we MUST have balance then why the fuck is Eli throwing the ball 54 times?
You just have to accept there are stupid people in this world.
Totally agree. We need that bell cow RB. Someone that can reliably get 4 yards a carry and break off a few big ones in the process. I thought Williams would be that guy, however he hasn't shown a lot of that lately. Jennings is also getting older and would probably be an acceptable back up and vet presence.
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nd too many drives are stopped, because we must have balance....
If we MUST have balance then why the fuck is Eli throwing the ball 54 times?
crickets
When he squares up his shoulders, he runs over fools, but more often then not he tries to do some fancy move he is not capable of at the NFL level and usually gets blasted.
U really seeing that THIS YEAR? Or recalling from last year? I've watched every min of every game this year, and though there's s lot less evidence this far, I'd swear the spinning, dancing sideways etc is much less this year so far.
But who knows, maybe Williams looks bad in practice and the coaches have no faith in him, except for goal line? I hope that's not the case.
Although Williams hasn't done anything great, I don't think he has been a particular problem. He's a durable back who secures the ball. Also seems to be a good teammate, which is important when a huge college star has to play a supporting role. As the run blocking improves, his numbers will too. And considering that neither Jennings nor Vereen has ever sniffed 200 carries, we might be glad to have Williams at some point.
With this offense, with the focus on getting the ball out quickly and checking down more often, with the problems at TE and WR, they can't really afford to give significant snaps to a RB with questionable vision that is zero threat in any capacity in the passing game.
I loathe to agree with Thomas, but it really doesn't make a ton of sense why they drafted him.
Williams averaged 3.3 YPC his rookie year. Williams obviously received more carries his rookie season but he finished with 30 first downs and 7 TDs. Hard to compare especially since Jacobs obviously played behind a better OL that rookie season. This year is a better comparison but it's early--after 5 games, pretty much in a short yardage role Williams is averaging 3 YPC and has 5 first downs and the one TD. So he's on pace for between 15-20 first downs and we will say 4 Tds or so.
Hopefully Williams improves as this season progresses. Like others have said he's far from a bad player and a decent value pick in round 4 but it would be nice to see some improvements as the OL improves. I think the OL has been fine thus far but it too can get better.
Every draft pick involves a certain amount of projection. To cite one WCO icon: how many receptions did Roger Craig have at Nebraska? (I peeked: his career totals were 16/102/0). Bill Walsh saw the potential, and the rest is history.
Reese drafted David Wilson figuring he could learn to block well enough. He drafted Williams figuring he could learn to catch well enough not be a serious liability. Williams seems to be progressing in that direction. Meanwhile, Reese has signed Jennings and Vereen - rendering AW's hands relatively unimportant.
I could be wrong but it seems like most of William's carries are in short yardage.
The thing is, I like Jennings better in short yardage situations. Too me, he looks much more adept at getting that extra yard or two when needed. Williams can be explosive at times, but for such a big, rugged runner, I don't trust him as much as Jennings when it gets down to it.
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now that they're getting more comfortable with Vereen.
I could be wrong but it seems like most of William's carries are in short yardage.
The thing is, I like Jennings better in short yardage situations. Too me, he looks much more adept at getting that extra yard or two when needed. Williams can be explosive at times, but for such a big, rugged runner, I don't trust him as much as Jennings when it gets down to it.
agree. Jennings seemingly has the knack for falling forward while absorbing contact.
TC mentioned, as in the 4 previous games, the (lack of a) running game. Right now SV is part RB/part slot receiver, and RJ is the RB. TC likes the ground game and prefers to have a ball control game. If we had a good 2 way OL, Williams could be used knowing a) he could get yds, and b) with a good run game Ds play in and AW becomes a good decay to more space for the pass.
If we had a good RT, that'd help a lot.
When he squares up his shoulders, he runs over fools, but more often then not he tries to do some fancy move he is not capable of at the NFL level and usually gets blasted.
U really seeing that THIS YEAR? Or recalling from last year? I've watched every min of every game this year, and though there's s lot less evidence this far, I'd swear the spinning, dancing sideways etc is much less this year so far.
As someone else noted, his YPC isn't much worse than Jennings or Vereen despite the fact that he gets all the short-yardage carries where no one's getting more than a couple of yards.
Andre looked better in the preseason, but I think he's pressing a bit now and reverting to his old habits. Perhaps because he's getting fewer reps, or he's still working to get used to NFL game speed.
By all accounts, he's a very hard, diligent worker. It will pay off, hang in there with him.
He needs the ball about 20 times in a game. He will get 3 or 4 here and there, but then he breaks a 20+ yard run to boost the numbers.
The offense the Giants run it appears isn't conducive to a player like him. He isn't a dual-threat player. Then, when you add in his lack of ability as a receiver, the defense can play the percentages of what is going to happen the moment he steps on the field.
BBB - not sure about your Tiki comment...but there are stats that could prove that either way.
I will say that Tiki's effectiveness really declined once the Giants got in the redzone. It was absolutely terrfic between the 20s.